DRUGS
Cholesterol buster On 21 July, following a recommendation from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in May, the European Commission approved Amgen's new drug Repatha (evolocumab) for lowering low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, the 'bad' cholesterol that contributes to plaque build-up in arteries. In June, a US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee also recommended the drug for approval, and regulators were expected to make a final decision as Nature Medicine went to press. The most popular existing cholesterol drugs, statins, are effective for many patients, but some people cannot take statins because of side effects such as muscle pain or contraindications such as liver disease. Repatha is the first approved agent in a new class of drugs that inhibit proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9), an enzyme that reduces the liver's ability to remove cholesterol from the blood. “Studies showed Repatha reduced LDL cholesterol by approximately 55%–75% compared with placebo,” says Sara Baker, a spokesperson for Amgen, based in Thousand Oaks, California.
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